Profile For Daniel B.

Congratulations my friend!

I think it's awesome they found a guy shorter than you to hand you the award.

Is that why the application oddly had us list our height?

Greetings all and long time no see! Every year California Trucking Association awards California’s best truck drivers with the distinguished honor of being named Drivers of the Month for the current year.

The process begins with a CTA member company nominating drivers who have shown their dedication to their job and the responsibility to safety that comes along with that position.

These nominations are then presented to an independent panel of judges.

The selection panel meets two times a year to review and evaluate all nominations. Before the panel sees the forms, the names of drivers and companies are removed to ensure that each candidate and their company remain anonymous.

The program culminates each November with a banquet in the North and one in the South where each winner is awarded a plaque and recognized for their outstanding service. The night is also filled with great excitement and anticipation as the Driver of the Year honor is revealed for the first time and bestowed upon the unknowing recipient.

I am most pleased to report that I was nominated and won the Driver of the Month for August 2023. I am the first ODFL driver to win in Northern CA.

Why am I posting this? Surely not to brag! Trucking has taught me long ago that it deflates ego's in bad ways. But I want to come back from the shadows to remind the new drivers, or the individuals seeking a new career, and even to the experienced that this career will be what you make of it. You can complain and pass the blame on why you are not succeeding in the industry or you can look for ways to thrive under your circumstances. The choice is yours. For me, this is not just a career or something I am pretty good at. But this is a grand opportunity to help future drivers to become safety-minded. Its about personally working on your skills in terms of pre-trip, backing, and precision driving and then competing in the annual Truck Driving Competition TDC to see how you compare against the best of the best. Its about daily problem solving and finding ways to succeed using methods that others cannot grasp. Its about being heavily involved in the training program and seeing the fruits of your labor manifest themselves in your students.

I started behind my computer on TruckingTruth 11 years ago studying for my permit and living through the posts of the members back in the day and through hard work and discipline I found myself here. If I can do it, so can you.

Congratulations Daniel!

That is really great. You've come a long way from those early days at Central with Olga on board just to keep you from getting lost.

Man, what a journey it's been. I am glad we got to share it together.

Thank you my good friend! Unfortunately Olga decided to help keep other men from "getting lost" off...

I've had dinner with OS quite a few times. Its not that hard to lure him. You just gotta put good bait on the hook. He likes steak, and jokes, lots and lots of jokes. Don't give up guys!

Goal achieved! I placed 2nd place in the Northern California TDC Flatbed Division! The following day I competed against both Top 3 Northern & Top 3 Southern California drivers to determine the #1 spot and who will represent California in the Nationals in Columbus Ohio in August.

I scored 4th in State in the Flatbed Division. The state of California had 690 drivers participating across all divisions.

Competing at the State level against the best drivers that California has to offer was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I was competing against the best of the best.

The State championship consisted of 3 different areas that they thoroughly tested you in:

1: A 50 question multiple choice test that was extremely difficult. Topics in the exam were: Safety & Compliance, Emergency/ Medical Response, Medical Conditions, History of the Industry, Fatality Accident Percentages, Industry Population, Procedures & Liability, Government Acts, Risk Management.

2: A time sensitive Vehicle Inspection where Major and Minor defects were planted on the vehicle. The defects were intentionally made to be extremely difficult to find such as a cotter pin missing, an artificial crack, and even color matching tape on hoses to mimic an improper repair. We were being graded by California Highway Patrol Officers.

3: A skills obstacle course that was the most intense, tight, and unforgiving course. It was like driving inside a sardine can. You only had inches to spare at best throughout the entire course.

Overall I am very satisfied with my performance. Ranking #2 in Northern CA and #4 in the State of California in the Flatbed Division is something that I am extremely proud of.

I'm sure many of you have heard of this annual event and I highly encourage you to participate if you are able. This was my first year competing and I will surely be back next year to chase that #1 spot in the State of California.

From a safety and ride comfortability standpoint its very important to have balanced axle weights. You always want the drive axles to be slightly heavier than the trailer axles if at all possible. In addition to this, your Steer axle is too light. I always keep mine right at 12,000 but first double check the rating on the steer tires. Remember you can only reach 80,000 gross if your Steer Axle weighs 12,000 (12+34+34) so you are essentially limiting yourself to 79,000 gross by having your steers at 11,000lb unnecessarily.

How much weight shifts per pin depends on the distance between each pin. I generally average it out to be 500lb per pin.

Here is your current weight:

Steer weight: 11,040

Drive weight: 30,480

Trailer weight: 33,660

I would move my fifth wheel to add weight to the Steer Axle first making your new weight:

Steer weight: 12,040

Drive weight: 29,480

Trailer weight: 33,660

Now I would move the tandems 5 pins away from the Drive Axle to provide more weight to the Drive Axle. At 500lb per pin that would make a 2,500lb difference. Leaving you with:

Steer weight: 12,040

Drive weight: 31,980

Trailer weight: 31,160

Of course, do make sure that you are legal with your tandem placement for any states you are driving through.

I would always aim to balance yourself as much as possible for the sake of safety. It's difficult to do this in the LTL world because a lot of our tractors are single axle so we are limited to 20,000 on the Drive Axle. We find ourselves loaded at 18,000 on the Drive Axle and 33,000 on the Trailer Axle when hauling a longbox. Its not a comfortable ride to say the least but this is where experience helps.

I feel bad for my car if I push 80mph

Not sure how many folks are here that have been here for 8+ years but if you have been you probably remember Jopa! He was our resident old man who went to Prime but experienced a ton of hardship getting into the program due to medications. He was always cracking jokes and had a great personality (albeit a bit grumpy but that comes with age).

Unfortunately he passed away last week. He's in Heaven now.

Jopa's Profile

We will be at .7688 if my math is correct.

Are you guys staying busy? Our P&D guys are struggling to get 40 hours a week at times. They are granting a lot of unpaid days off right now as well if you want one.

Yeah we are busy. At least I am. I'm #11 Seniority but my start time is at 0900 (for family reasons) so I'm starting with the rookie, low Seniority guys. Needless to say they always have 2-6 stops and I get the 12-18 stoppers + pickups. So I'm busy I don't know about them. Our Lead Driver Trainer stepped down so I'm running the ODTDT program now so I'm constantly having to check up on students and trainers and manage all of that.

As far as freight we are busy but not slammed. Its nothing like it was in the past few summers but its busy enough to easily get all the hours you want.

Learn and study the "crack the whip effect". Also, know when you can and cannot haul triples and where you can and cannot before you begin.